The Social 50 is powered by data tracked by music analytics company Next Big Sound and ranks the most popular artists on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Wikipedia and Tumblr. The chart's methodology blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with artist page views and engagement. The chart’s latest tracking week ended Dec. 28.

ihanna added 283,000 new followers on Instagram in the week ending Dec. 28, 2017 (up 146 percent). On Dec. 26, she announced the release of Mattemoiselle, her new lipstick line with Sephora, with an Instagram video showing multiple women -- herself included -- applying the lipstick.

Later that day, she posted a solemn photo toasting her cousin, Tavon Alleyne, who was shot and killed in Barbados that day after she spent Christmas with him the day before. She added the hashtag #endgunviolence to the post and, in the caption accompanying a video of Alleyne the next day, added, “Be grateful for life, man.”

Meanwhile, BLACKPINK re-enters the Social 50 at No. 27 as the K-pop girl group gears up for its upcoming reality show, BLACKPINK TV.

On Dec. 28, the group announced the show’s premiere date (Jan. 6) in a YouTube video after months of teasers on social media. In all, BLACKPINK added 680,000 YouTube reactions, up 291 percent, following the clip’s release.

And thanks to a Google doodle, Marlene Dietrich makes her first Billboard chart appearance more than 25 years after her death in 1992, debuting at No. 14 on the Social 50. Dietrich, who garnered 689,000 Wikipedia views in the tracking week, was the subject of a Dec. 27 Google doodle that celebrated what would have been her 116th birthday with an illustration of her role in 1930’s Morocco, her first Hollywood film. She died May 6, 1992, aged 90, having appeared in dozens of films and released multiple studio and live albums, performing live throughout much of the ‘50s to the ‘70s.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the week’s most popular albums based on their overall consumption. That overall unit figure combines pure album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the action on the rest of the Billboard 200:

— Soundtrack, Pitch Perfect 3 – No. 23 — The Pitch Perfect 3 soundtrack jumps into the top 40 (rising 61-23 with 26,000 units; up 67 percent) after the film opened in theaters on Dec. 22. The Pitch Perfect 2 album debuted at No. 1, while the first Pitch set peaked at No. 3.

— Nat King Cole, The Christmas Song – No. 29 — Nat King Cole scores his first top 40-charting album on the Billboard 200 in more than 50 years, as The Christmas Song rises 48-29. The holiday set — buoyed by the classic title track’s on-demand audio streams — earned 21,000 equivalent album units (up 24 percent) in the week ending Dec. 28, according to Nielsen Music. It’s not surprising to see some albums earn gains on the latest Billboard 200 chart, since the latest tracking week included the three days leading up to Christmas (Dec. 22-24), as well as the holiday itself (Dec. 25). Cole was last in the top 40 with Ramblin’ Rose, which spent its final week in the top 40 on the tally dated Jan. 15, 1966 (after earlier peaking at No. 7 (April 24, 1965).

— Frank Sinatra, Ultimate Christmas – No. 30 — Frank Sinatra extends his record for the most top 40-charting albums on the Billboard 200 as Ultimate Christmas rises 45-30 (21,000 units; up 12 percent). The set is Sinatra’s 58th top 40 set, and first since 2015, when the greatest hits package Ultimate Sinatra peaked at No. 32 (May 9, 2015).

— Guns N’ Roses, Greatest Hits — No. 135 — The best-of album surpasses 6 million in total U.S. sales, as it sold another 4,000 copies in the week ending Dec. 28 (up 14 percent). The set's sales now stand at 6.002 million. The album was released in 2004, peaked at No. 3, and has spent 425 weeks on the list. Since the release of the Hits album, the band has released one studio set — Chinese Democracy, in 2008, which topped out at No. 3.

— Gene Autry, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Other Christmas Classics – No. 157 — The entertainer, who died in 1998, collects his first entry on the Billboard 200 with this holiday collection. Most of its total units (7,000; up 19 percent) for the week were driven by the album’s title song.

Is it possible that anybody can post the "Canada CHR/Top 40", "Canada AC" and "Canada Hot AC" charts? I would like to update a couple of Wikipedia articles include the use these charts. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The first MBN of 2018 isn’t usually all that exciting. There’s always a bit of a drought in new releases and it takes a bit for things to get rolling again. I always like to refer to the Wikipedia page for metal music to keep track of releases. It doesn’t cover everything and if one of your favorite bands is relatively obscure/doesn’t have a Wikipedia page you probably won’t find them on here. Still, it’s a pretty good and simply reference point for seeing what the new year has to offer. January is already looking like a pretty packed month with releases from Shining, Corrosion of Conformity, Machine Head, and more heading our way.

Note: the selected art for this week’s column is Asking Alexandria’s newest album, which was the top debut last week.

Notable Sales:

Five Finger Death Punch, A Decade Of Destruction (Prospect Park)8,400 soldThis is still selling pretty well for an album with only two new songs on it (one of them an Offspring cover).

Foo Fighters, Concrete and Gold (RCA/Roswell)6,700 soldThis got a big boost of 79% last week followed by a 13% drop this week.

Avenged Sevenfold, The Stage (Capitol)4,900 soldThis got boosted back up the charts by the resissue with all the b-sides, pushing it to over 202,000 sold.

Linkin Park, One More Light Live (Warner Bros.)4,800 soldThis live album debuted last week with 21,000 sold.

Greta Van Fleet, From the Fires EP (Lava)4,600 soldI expect this will be sticking around well into the new year.

Morbid Angel, Kingdoms Disdained (Silver Lining)400 soldThough it’s received much praise, the album has only sold about 4,000 thus far. This is perhaps mostly due to being released so late in the year.

Power Trip, Nightmare Logic (Southern Lord)400 soldThis album has been sweeping many best of 2017 lists. It has sold about 18,000 total thus far.

DovahDuck wrote:Is it possible that anybody can post the "Canada CHR/Top 40", "Canada AC" and "Canada Hot AC" charts? I would like to update a couple of Wikipedia articles include the use these charts. Any help will be greatly appreciated.